About two hours out of Cairo on the road to Bahariya Oasis, we turn east into the desert. At first it’s what is called “black desert”. Billions of tiny pebbles and ancient shells have worked their way to the surface and cover the sand in a dark blanket.

This is treacherous to drive on and our two Bedouin guides, Mohamed and Salah, prefer sand runs which are solider and more dependable. It’s a fast exciting bumpy ride until we come to the edge of the escarpment. The first level of the valley floor is about 100 meters below us; the drivers skirt the edge of the drop coming heart-stopping close to the edge at times, and driving over slopes that tilt the Toyota Land-Cruisers at scary angles toward the drop.

Talk about an adrenalin rush. Miriam and I are in the car with Mohamed who is the chief guide and I am in the front seat. Behind me Catherine and Miriam squeal and Hendrick keeps repeating “Oh My God! over and over. In the front seat Mohamed and I are howling with glee like maniacs.

This was all once part of the ocean and you can still find sea shells, sharks’ teeth and of course these magnificent ancient whale fossils. There are about twenty and there are probably hundreds more beneath the sand. The drivers prepare a typical desert lunch of tomato, cucumber, tinned tuna, cream cheese and pita.

This is always the lunch as it is all they have which transports and keeps easily. By this time it is about three o’clock so we head into the real sand desert with its magnificent dunes. This is the extreme eastern edge of the Great Sand Sea, the Libyan Desert and the Sahara. The dunes are beautiful.

The trick is to keep moving and, of course, to know the desert, know the sand and how it works. We climb high up one slope of a Butte for a magnificent view and five kilometers way we see two other vehicles one on each side of a dune.

One driver tries to cross the dune and gets hung up on the summit his rear wheels spinning in empty air. We watch them work at it for 30 minutes or so before the vehicle is freed and slides down the other side. These are the only other people we see and they are far off.

The wind is picking up so we head for a nearby Butte to pitch camp. The drivers do this by finding a huge rock and angling the two vehicles at 90 degrees to one another against it so you have an enclosure open on only one side. We stay out of the way and simply enjoy a nice drink of scotch while we wait. Large colorful cloth windbreaks are put up and rugs and mats spread on the sand. It’s very cozy.

It gets dark quickly in the desert and the stars are magnificent. We are in a very beautiful area and it is so peaceful to sit around the dying fire and listen to the wind, a far-off owl and the faint yapping of a desert fox.

I have prepared a little hollow for myself away from the others and by 9.30 I am happily in my sleeping bag with a knit cap on my head because it gets REALLY cold in the desert, and I drift off to sleep for eight and a half hours!! I rarely sleep that long but it’s so peaceful sleeping under the star-filled desert sky.